Just before leaving the house, while we’re all getting dressed and ready, Luck will always demand to have his hair fixed with gel. If he asks for “Lewis”, that means he wants his hair spiked straight up. If he requests for “Wilbur”, then he wants you to make a faux-halk. Both Lewis and Wilbur are characters from Disney’s Meet The Robinsons (one of his favorites, of course) and they sport distinctively different hairstyles. We haven’t quite figured out yet his reasoning for choosing one over the other, but I personally a fan of ‘the Wilbur’ look on him especially when his hair is a bit shaggy & grown out a bit.

Today, Luck swiped my cordless electric screwdriver, figured out how to switch it to unscrew and began to systematically dismantle several of his toys, beginning with his beloved garbage truck. great.

I’ve meant to do this a loooooooooooooong time ago, and really should have started at Day 1, but it’s never to late to start, right? The objective is to loosely chronicle the misadventures and random bits of info about our Son, Lucas. We won’t necessarily do this on a daily basis, but whenever we observe any interesting or prominent trends in behaviour. Each of these posts will also describe what Little Man is up to at point in time.

• wants to be a diver (largely inspired by frequent trips to the LB Aquarium)
• roars like a dinosaur at poor unsuspecting kids catching them off guard
• acts like a robot & talks mono-tone from time to time
• is beginning to ask “why” and following up our answers with additional “why” questions
• knows that Mommy is going to “help people” when she takes off to do her volunteer work
• likes to show off & flirt with girls, usually cute ones a few years older then him
• he does this by roaring at them like a dinosaur or pretending he’s Iron Man shooting repulsor rays from his hands
• loves to pretend he’s a train. any marking on a floor (and I mean anything) or path instantly becomes a train track. If there’s an obstacle (usually an adult) then the train track is proclaimed “broken!”
• we’re proud to say that Luck is extremely polite for his age, almost always following up requests with a “please”, then quickly saying “thank you” afterward. Sometimes, he’ll even answer “you’re welcome” for you in case you forget to do it yourself

Favorites

• top three movies: Meet The Robinsons, The Incredibles, Monsters vs Aliens
• favorite right before bedtime TV show: Wow Wow Wubbzy; he specifically requests to watch the train episode, which could be either “Big Train” (Wuzzleberg Express) or “Small Train” (___)

What’s On The Menu?!

Can’t get Luck to eat? These are the (usually) sure-fire winners these days

• Chicken McNuggets from Mickey D’s
• sausage and rice
  • Johnsonville Brats
  • Farmer John breakfast sausage (skinned or unskinned)
  • Hillshire Farms Smoked Sausage
• Hormel Stroganoff
• Daddy’s corned beef & tomato stew
• Daddy’s chicken adobo

…and these are some of the surprising things (to us, anyway) he likes and eats every once in a while

• sprouted brown rice
• grapes

Favorite Phrases

• “in a minute!”
• “just a little bit”
• “look at me, Mommy!”
• “What that noise?!” (when listening to my music)
• “Go away, Daddy”
• “Daddy funny!”

ok, so mostly wishful thinking, but a running list (in no particular order) of places and things we’d love to see at some point in our lives…

• Harbin Ice Festival
  Located in the north east, it looks like Harbin is the northernmost major city in China [Google Map]. The annual festival begins on January 5th, and lasts for over a month. The most direct route to Harbin appears to be via Beijing or Shanghai.
• Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture
  I’ve no idea where nor when I’d like to do this… all I know is that I want to experience a live performance of this (complete with real cannon explosions) sometime soon.

well, alrighty then. so it was mid-summer when I did the Proof Bar gig, but as promised I have (re)recorded my set from that night and posted it here for your aural pleasure. With a hint of MJ’s Thriller at the apex, and ending with Rihanna’s late-summer smash, Disturbia, the tracklist is ironically still relevant three months later. It’s the perfect preamble for your pre-Hallowe’en shenanigans. Though it begins with a pretty laidback vibe, its energy builds steadily and will ultimately catapult you into this weekend’s costumed debauchery.

Pls do me a huge favor, download it to your music player o’ choice and bump it while you’re on your way out tonight. Or, have a taste right now, annoy your coworkers & just stream it from here:

[See post to listen to audio]
Set It Off – DACIO [download]
60.3 MB ~ 52m 43s ~ 160kbps

Tracklist

1. Le Champagne (Original Mix) – Trentmøller
2. Squire For Hire (Restless Soul Capricorn Mix) – Nathan Haines
3. Swimming Places (Jerome Sydenham Remix) – Julien Jabre
4. American Boy (Kill The Noise Remix) – Estelle (ft Kanye West)
5. Black And Gold (Al Usher Mix) – Sam Sparro
6. Hot In Herre – Tiga (covering Nelly)
7. Buzzin (Villains Remix v.2) – Shwayze (ft Cisco Adler of Whitestarr & Wale)
8. We Are Your Friends (Radioslave & Spencer Parker Re-Edit) – Justice vs Simian
9. Thrilla (Villains Remix) – Villains (reworking Michael Jackson’s Thriller)
10. I’m Not Gonna Teach Your Boyfriend How To Dance With You (The Twelves Remix) – Black Kids
11. Cream (Original Mix) – Federico Franchi
12. Bring That Beat Back – DJ Riz
13. Be + Show Me Love (Hardwell Remix) – Steve Angello & Laidback Luke vs Robin S
14. Disturbia (Jody Den Broeder Remix) – Rihanna

Coldplay will be performing at the Honda Center in Anaheim on Tuesday, November 25, 2008. If you’ll be in the area and would like to attend, purchase your tickets before everyone else via KROQ’s presale

Although I got The Monster home from the mechanic on Saturday, and back into in the garage on Sunday, I had not yet had a chance to take it for a spin. So, since I’ve got a late evening ahead of me anyway (GMAT class), I figgered I’d fire up Il Mostro this morning before heading to the DayJob.

So I roll it out to the bottom of my driveway, turn the key, hit “Run” and push in the starter. Nothin’. Silencio. Huh?!!?!? /groan. Not again!! I started it successfully without issue the past three successive days – wtF is goin’ on now?!! Frustrated I wheel it back up into the garage, fiddle around with dials, switches and whatnot for a couple of minutes without success. Maybe I gotta tap the relay, like Rob has previously suggested, but I thought we’re beyond that! After all, that was the primary component the Ducati mech replaced/fixed (!!?!?). So anyway, off comes the seat; tap tap tap the relay; replace seat. Turn the key, hit “Run” and push in the starter. “VROOOOOOM!!!!!” YES. sweet.

After a few poor attempts to get out of first gear (not as many as before, thankfully), I’m off and running laps around the neighborhood. It’s nice to have my bike back and fun as hell to be riding it (even at 25 miles an hour. in 1st gear.) I do get brave enough later in my session to up it to (gasp!) second gear, and practice the whole up/down-shifting thing a bit.

Twenty minutes later, I’m back in the garage and happy. I can’t wait to go out again… Next on my list: starting and stopping confidently. Needta find a long open stretch of road that I can easily get to…

btw, pix of the new clutch pressure plate & cover I had installed are up on my Flickr account. The dudes at Spectrum Motorsports did a fantastic job (on everything) and I recommend them highly.

Many, many, many, many thanks to all of you came out to hang with me at Proof Bar last Thursday night!! It really meant a lot to me that you guys came out to show your support. I’m sorry that I didn’t get a chance to see some of you before you headed out, but glad you all made it home safe & sound.

A special giant THANK YOU goes out to my good Friends from the Bay Area, Donna Claudio & Ken “k-cee” Co, who drove/flew down just to see me spin. Not only did Ken step in and graciously lend his technical expertise to the GDOC guys with their sound system (that’s a whole story in and of itself), but he saved my ass by lettin’ use his (sturdy) Mac as a backup when my (weaksauce) XP system crashed.

Despite the early setup & equipment issues, the evening was a fantastically fun success (I hear there were something like 600 heads in the place). I hope you all had as much fun as I did…

I’ll post up a (re)recording of the set I threw down, but for now here’s the tracklist:

1. Le Champagne (Original Mix) – Trentmøller
2. Squire For Hire (Restless Soul Capricorn Mix) – Nathan Haines
3. Swimming Places (Jerome Sydenham Remix) – Julien Jabre
4. American Boy (Kill The Noise Remix) – Estelle (ft Kanye West)
5. Black And Gold (Al Usher Mix) – Sam Sparro
6. Hot In Herre – Tiga (covering Nelly)
7. Buzzin (Villains Remix v.2) – Shwayze (ft Cisco Adler of Whitestarr & Wale)
8. We Are Your Friends (Radioslave & Spencer Parker Re-Edit) – Justice vs Simian
9. Thrilla (Villains Remix) – Villains (reworking Michael Jackson’s Thriller)
10. I’m Not Gonna Teach Your Boyfriend How To Dance With You (The Twelves Remix) – Black Kids
11. Cream (Original Mix) – Federico Franchi
12. Bring That Beat Back – DJ Riz
13. Be + Show Me Love (Hardwell Remix) – Steve Angello & Laidback Luke vs Robin S
14. Disturbia (Jody Den Broeder Remix) – Rihanna

I’ve (finally) landed myself a “real” DJ gig at a small bar here in the OC…
Please join me at PROOF in Santa Ana on Thursday night, AUGUST 14 for an evening of music, drinks & arse-shakin’: http://getdownoc.blogspot.com/

yep, that’s me at the bottom of the list… please, please, please (puh-leeease!!!) come out and show your support while I warm up the crowd with some house & electro. I’m one of the openers, and my set starts around 10pm. Hang with me early in the outdoor patio and grub on some bacon-wrapped hot dogs downtown-LA style (serious. I’m not kidding – peep the flyer.) since my set’s only about an hour long, I’ll kick it and get faded with you for the rest of the night!

COVER is FREE!!! there is no dress code, and DRINKS are CHEAP.
the more the merrier, so I encourage you to invite your friends to join us (and your friends’ friends even)

http://www.proofbar.com/ (within the Arts District, just up the block from Memphis)
http://getdownoc.blogspot.com/
here’s the yelp on the joint: http://www.yelp.com/biz/proof-bar-santa-ana